Dating back to 1988, I patented an injury reduction and stabilizing harness as described in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,735,198. According to my earlier patent, I used elastic straps on a torso and upper arm fitting harness to control the amount of movement of the upper arm relative to the torso of the user. The straps, according to my earlier patent, attached at their opposite ends by Velcro™ to different part of the harness.
My earlier patented harness allowed athletes or even people under general rehabilitation continued controlled use of an injured shoulder or upper arm. The elasticity of the straps, particularly once the straps are stretched, would slow movement of the injured body part rather than allowing the body part completely unrestricted free motion.
Since the time of my earlier patent, many athletes in professional sports have grown much bigger and much stronger. Consider the size of a lineman on a pro football team who will easily weight in excess of 300 pounds. Today's professional hockey players usually weight in excess of 200 pounds which is probably some 20 to 30 pounds heavier than the players in the 1980s. It is well accepted that athletes of the 21st century are much larger, stronger and faster than their counterparts of the 1980s. As such, the harness as described in my 1988 patent, although providing extremely beneficial results at the time, is not capable of standing up to the tremendous physical punishment encountered by the larger athletes of the present.